Mid-Century Modern Art

What you know as today’s modern art wouldn’t be what it is without Mid-Century Modern art. Staying true to its title, this zany style was born in the 1940s and remained prominent until the 1960s, but it truly was the start of the movement to change the face of art, as we knew it. Previously, art was all about realism.
You had to take what you saw in front of you and paint it exactly as it appeared. It wasn’t until this time that art became about expression and intrigue.

For example, close-up images of nature might not have been titled “art” before, but Mid-Century Modern designs have a different idea. David Gray’s “Four Reeds” is a tight shot of four sticks floating in water and “Stacking Stones 2 Teal” by Sandro De Carvalho is a stack of four smooth stones. Before this movement, artists might have scoffed at these images, but the open-mindedness that really took off in the middle of the 1900s helped art become something totally new.

The abstract also became more appreciated with the so-called “Art Revolution.” James Burghardt’s creation “Modern Dance III” shows several different shades of brown lines, which cross over each other in a curvy “x” shape, and “Green Space III” by Beverly Crawford shines a new light on the color green.

So, if you appreciate today’s art, tip your hat to the radical Mid-Century Modern art images that came after World War II. The bold and the new became the focus of art as opposed to the perfect and the mundane.